Institutions

The London Picture Map allows you to browse our collections geographically and it's a great way to discover images of a particular street or building. Many of the images which we have placed on the map are of buildings that no longer exist, giving you an intriguing view of ‘Lost London’.

Please note that while we regularly add new images to the map, to ensure that the map is not overwhelmed with our images, only a small proportion are available to view in this way. If you don't find what you're looking for on the map, please use the Search or Advanced Search features.

London Picture Map

You can search the underlying modern map by entering a term in the white search box. Please note that this searches the names of streets and places that appear on the map, rather than the images we’ve placed on it. This means that your searches should focus on the names of existing streets or buildings in London, rather than streets or buildings which no longer exist.

While you are browsing the map, it will load all of the image markers for the area visible in the frame. For example, if you zoom out to view the whole of the Greater London area, thousands of image markers will load, and this takes a few seconds. As you zoom in, fewer image markers are loaded and the process becomes quicker. Clicking on ‘Browse Results’ will show you all of the images which are on the map at that moment.

Click on a marker to see the image or images which we have linked to the location. Well known buildings such as Somerset House are likely to have more than one image, so you will be able to browse through a number of relevant results. The red ‘C’ markers represent one image. The green markers represent a group of less than 10 images in close proximity; the light orange markers represent a group of less than 100 images in close proximity; the dark orange markers represent a group of less than 1000 images in close proximity; the red markers with numbers represent groups of more than 1000 images in close proximity.

Once you have clicked on a marker to open the image page, you will see that the description includes a note on whether the location on the maps is ‘exact’ or ‘approximate’. Images of streets or buildings which no longer exist can be difficult to place precisely and are therefore usually ‘approximate’. If you disagree with our placement of an image, please tell us by using the ‘Tell us about this image’ feature on the image page.

Collage is owned and managed by London Metropolitan Archives on behalf of the City of London Corporation